Mercy on the high seas: Dedicated to lessening the high cost of war in death and suffering, Navy hospital ships staffed with doctors, nurses, and corpsmen went "up front" with war vessels- braving the gunfire and kamikaze attacks of the foe to administer human salvage.
Mercy on the high seas: Dedicated to lessening the high cost of war in death and suffering, Navy hospital ships staffed with doctors, nurses, and corpsmen went "up front" with war vessels- braving the gunfire and kamikaze attacks of the foe to administer human salvage.
They won no headlines, seized no strongholds. But unsparing of their own welfare, they won countless victories over man's eternal enemies -pain and death. These photographs depict them in operation - mercy on the warring seas. Plainly marked by huge Red Crosses, the Navy hospital ship steams through the Pacific en route to a mercy mission. Unarmed and unarmored, the Solace undauntedly moved in under enemy fire to perform its duties in nearly every Pacific invasion since the assault on bloody Tarawa. At last, at Okinawa, her symbols of mercy failed to protect her - a Jap kamikaze pilot deliberately smashed his plane against her, but failed to sink the gallant ship. Hospital ships. Transport of sick and wounded, 10/14/1945. Original public domain image from Flickr